Lost position on Google 5

[kundrol]

I have a website at handspunhats.com. I was doing Ok with the help of a website optimization company that was submitting my website to all the major search engines every couple of months. They had also written a whole bunch of mega tags, etc. But in November I lost my position on Google. They said this was because Google had increased their listings by 30,000 and were "over extended." They tried re-submitting me and still no findable listing on Google. So I fired them. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do next. I've added a links page and got about 25 links, but am clueless about how to get my Google listing back. I use the most recent version of Front Page, know very little html and am very low tech.

 

[kundrol]

Yes, I know you're right. I think my best plan of action for now until I make some money this summer (tourist season here is usually good on Telegraph)is to make do with the FrontPage, while experimenting with some of Chris' suggestions, especially the hyperlinking. If Dreamweaver seems like it would work for me, I expect it might be worth the money. I got the FrontPage for free from the folks whose website I edit.

I'm not sure what you mean by a "serious" website, but I suspect you mean one that's more user friendly. I'm hoping that fixing the hyperlinks will help with that. I sent for the Steve Krug book, BTW.

As for Zen Garden, that's way over my head, plus I don't like the slick look of the sites there. (Sorry) I'm sure there's a way to use that technology using my funky hat scans and scrapbook photos, tho. So maybe I'll get there eventually. I am learning html slowly but surely.

I really appreciate the help, and as soon as I sell a few more hats, I'm going to send y'all a check! (Slow day today, unfortunately - May tends to be that way.)

 

[Foamcow]

By serious I simply meant one that's going to make you some money ;-)


Since you are essentially building an online shop, have you looked at an "out of the box" shopping cart site.
Something like ZenCart would be ideal for your needs (so long as you installed the search engine friendly URLs mod)

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time

 

[ChrisHirst]

just to catch up a little. I posted CSS Zen Garden as an example on how you can change the look quickly and if need be on each page. I would not go for the one overall look as it will not fit with your target audience.
One of the problems with using an "off the shelf" cart would be the difficulty of making each page "individual" while making common features be "in keeping" with the page style. Most carts are single template based so are uniform throughout. I had my daughter look over the site and normally I'd get a "yeah, great but it's boring" reaction but not in this case.
I'm actually going against my original thoughts (which I did in my third post anyway) but it's after a more in-depth look over rather than the initial glance (and of course the opinion of a higher authority)

Yes there is a way of using your existing photos and page style and still maintaining the individual page look while making a more user (SEs and real) friendly site but it won't be by diving straight into a standard shopping cart for the whole site. A gradual process in which you can learn HTML and CSS will work albeit a little slower.


Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[kundrol]

So your daughter thought my site was "not boring?" That's a good sign. Actually most of the folks who see me in person and get one of my cards and then go look at the website really like it. But I do wonder about the folks who don't know me and might not "get it."

Yeah, a slow approach is the only option for me. I have no training in computer stuff at all, so am just learning by doing. It's fun though!

I didn't mean to dis Zen Garden. My housemate who know a whole lot more about such things than I do thinks it's magnificent!

 

[ChrisHirst]

she was more enthusiatic about your products, and if she hadn't just bought tickets to Glade festival would have been making holes in your stock

CSS ZEN Garden is a bit like that, It's either a drooling "Wow!" or it's "Umm Yeah Right. What's it do then? "






Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[kundrol]

Well there are always new hats coming down the pipeline. I hope your daughter checks back again when she wants a really nice quality handspun hat!

I'm going to get started on your instructions for fixing the hyperlink situation on my website tomorrow.

Thanks much!

 

[traingamer]

Not related to SEO, most (or maybe all) of your images seem to be displayed in sizes other than the actual image size. e.g. 'show off girl.jpg' is displayed as 140 x 186, but actual size is 300 x 396. Why not use a simple image editor (like IrfanView or something) to resize it to the size you want (probably making it smaller in the process) so the pages will load faster for your users?

cool site, though

Greg
"Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught." - Winston Churchill

 

[kundrol]

I'm not sure what's going on with the image sizes. I save the images in PhotoShop all at 350 width, then insert the images into the cells using FrontPage. Then I adjust the size of the image to fit the cell - like bigger or smaller.

Your suggestion sounds very good, but I don't know what IrfanView is. I have a housemate who is getting his pHd in computer science, and he just sent me gVim 6.3 html editor, but I haven't had time to figure out how it works, cause I've been dyeing yarn all day.

Thanks for looking at my site!

 

[ChrisHirst]

IrfanView is a simple image editor, Useful tool especially for it's batch job features.

Resizing in FP is what Greg means, by making the cell do the sizing you either squash or even worse stretch the image. The squashing doesn't resize, it only displays it at a new size.
Taking a home page image (tweedy round cute girl) 350x441 actual (47.7kb) display 169x211 still 47.7k. resize to actual 169x211 25% compression added and the byte size is 5.87k that is a reduction in download size of 9 times, That would reduce the download time from around 15sec to 1.5secs at 56k (times approximately) and that's just one image.

Internet users have a low attention span and on average if a page isn't loaded in 8 - 12 secs you've lost them, dial-up users are a little more patient at 25 - 30 secs. So anything you do to improve load speed will benefit your users (and your ROI).

btw compression is in the "Save for web" in PS, and 25% is usually perfectly ok for web use.

You could always have another page with the larger photo on and some text and link the thumbnail, use the alt attribute of the thumbnail and it's another useful keyphrase for SEO work. (I'm not one to miss a useful opportunity ).



Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[kundrol]

Thanks, Chris! So you're saying that when I save a file in PS, I should maybe do it in Save for Web, rather than the Save As option? It sounds like doing this thing will make the images on the site look smaller, and while thumnails might possibly be appropriate on the In Stock page, on the other pages, the images need to stay about the size they are.

I have been squishing and stretchin and otherwise manipulating images in FP in order for them to look right next to each other. So I guess I need to be more careful how I do that.

I'll be doing some experimenting today - once I've had a good strong cup of tea!

 

[Foamcow]

At the risk of stealing Chris' tip
What you actually need to do is resize the image in the image editor (you can do this in "Save for web" or in "Image Size" in photoshop).

Then place them into your page at that size and leave them like that!

A large image resized in a browser is still a large image.

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time

 

[ChrisHirst]

No they won't look smaller. They will be the same size as they appear now, only they will be physically the same size in pixels rather then being forced into a sized box.

And you can still do the layout and the sizing but then when you have the look right, use PS to resize the image to the dimensions you have chosen.



Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[kundrol]

OK Chris. Sounds like a plan. This should keep me busy for awhile.

Thanks!

 

[kundrol]

Hey guys - I'm totally amazed. I just checked Google, and my site is listed #2 on the first page under 'handspun hats' whereas the last time I checked it was nowhere!!! Yikes, what happened??

Meanwhile, I've been reloading my images in smaller format, and the load time has decreased somewhat (by 30 sec on my index page)and more on the in stock page, which is the slowest one because it has the most images.

However I can't get the code for linking cells on different pages to work. Use a named anchor on the in stock page. Chris' instructions were as follows:

Use a named anchor on the in stock page
<a name="hat_49"></a>
and place this in the bottom of the cell above the hat it is marking.
Then link to it with
<a href="hats in stock#hat_49">Anchor text</a>
While you are changing this, change the anchor text from "Hats Now in Stock" to a short phrase that includes the keywords for the hat, so hat #49 and #50 the text would be "Wool Skull Cap"

The "named anchor" came out as a little flag-looking thing, then when I tried to link to that from another page, it came up with an error message about there being no such url.

My housemate is showing me how to use gVim editor, but I also want to look at the one Chris recommended.